The Loop Facility Assignment Control System (LFACS) is used to maintain data on inventory and assignment of loops within a communication system. A “loop” refers to telecommunications facilities, such as cables, poles, terminals, electronic devices, etc. used to get telephone or other services from a central office (CO) to a customer. The CO is typically a structure that contains telecommunications switches and is an origination point of copper and fiber cables used to provide services.
LFACS is a legacy system and can be used to assign loop facilities in real-time during a service activation process. The LFACS can be used to maintain communication topology records associated with the service activation process. The LFACS includes an assignment algorithm used to build a record. Each record may include the physical cable routed from a CO to a distribution terminal and the cable pairs that route to a particular service customer. The LFACS can be used to assign specific cable pairs based on a service order. A typical service record may include many cable pairs traversing one or more distribution terminals.
For example, the LFACS can use an address to determine a distribution terminal associated with the address and any associated wiring limitations. Using this and other information, LFACS works back to a CO, mapping all the distribution terminals and related segments needed to complete the service order. The service order information is stored in a record and provided to a technician. The technician uses the record to implement the communication path from the CO to the panel box associated with the address. A record is maintained which details the service communication path to the subscriber's address. The record is also used in subsequent service requests and during maintenance procedures.
However, it has been observed that loop distributions can be modified over time for various reasons. Sometimes changes are made without reporting the change. Consequently, when LFACS assigns segments for a particular service order, a technician servicing the order may observe that an assigned segment is already in use. The technician may report the problem, and a clerk typically attempts to manually correct the LFACS record. This leads to inefficiencies and additional cost, as well as potentially incorrect LFACS records. Moreover, the clerk may not be able to correct the record (or records), because the LFACS assignment rules and records indicate that certain segments are recorded as being in use. The incorrect records and subsequent correction attempts can result in a domino effect adversely affecting other loops. That is, correcting one incorrect segment can interfere with another segment and one or more LFACS records. Additionally, incorrect LFACS records tend to impede service maintenance in the field.